Penalty Reduction in Industrial Power Consumption by Employing APFC Unit

In the industrial division, number of motoring loads are running continuously. These motoring loads generate inductive load. Power consumption is increasing day by day at a very high rate. So, due to this inductive reactive power, the power factor gets reduced. The electricity company has specified certain limits, if the power factor gets below these specified limits penalty will be imposed to the industrial consumers. To overcome inductive reactance compensation is achieved by the use of power capacitors. APFC device reads the power factor from line voltage and current by determining the delay in arrival of the current signal with respect to voltage signal with high accuracy using internal timer. These values are calibrated as phase angle and corresponding power factor. Then the calculation for the requirement of compensation takes place in the motherboard and accordingly different capacitor banks are switched on.